I completely agree that it’s essential that businesses use online marketing. Not doing this is probably a big mistake. There is a good chunk of people who you can only read online. I also loved that one of the first points made were concerning social media. The possibilities concerning social media is probably endless.

Great list Pawan. Reminds me of the massive infographic done by MarTech last year (http://chiefmartec.com/2016/03/marketing-technology-landscape-supergraphic-2016/), but a bit more manageable to consume!

The Digital Marketing course takes a holistic view of digital marketing, whilst really focusing on the more quantitative and data-driven aspects of contemporary marketing. You’ll be pushed to gain a clear understanding of a business’ goals and brand voice in order to launch a truly effective marketing campaign. Students will learn how to utilize analytics in order to make data-driven decisions ranging from audience segmentation and targeting, to what content resonates best with users.

Whether writing turns into a full-time career for you or just a fun project to tackle on the side, the folks at Contently are happy to help prepare you to pitch your content ideas to brands both big and small.

Basecamp has been around for a while, so you’ve probably heard of it already. It’s another cloud-based project management tool but unlike Mavenlink, you can’t track your time or expenses. And you can’t task other people.

2. Important distinction: Typing youtube into the browser bar is not the same thing as typing http://youtube.com. The first will get you a list of search results based on the search query “youtube”. The second will take you straight to the website. You’d be surprised how many times that confuses people who are just learning the basic internet marketing for beginners concepts.

7. Bit.ly: A classic. Use it together with Google’s or HubSpot’s URL builder to make sure you track all your campaigns properly. It would be a shame if you couldn’t tell whether your social campaigns result in traffic and conversions or not.

5. Make sure your website content is focused on your customer’s needs and interests, not your company. A common mistake that companies make on the Internet is focusing their Internet marketing text too much upon themselves. Visitors are more interested in learning about how your products or services can benefit them than about hearing about how wonderful you are or learning about the history of your company. Unlike other media, on the Internet you have very little time to communicate your company’s unique selling proposition (USP). The most effective websites are those that quickly answer the question “Why do I need this product/service?” Here’s a quick test- does your Internet marketing copy use words like “we”, “us”, and “our” more often than words like “you” and “your”? If so, your copy may be too self-centric. A change in focus would likely help you to better connect with your visitors.

One of the best ways to make sure you’re meeting your market’s needs is to ask Not only does a feedback survey let you know how your current market feels about your business, but also, it can give insight on how to reach out to more people to build your business.

Thank you Megan for a great list of course. Surely I’ll choose one and took class eventually. Online world is very competitive and we need to become intelligent for us to learn new things. Taking up an online marketing training course is good idea to be on top.

Kevan, thank you so much for sharing this amazing list of tools! I’ve been experimenting with Canva lately and it is super user-friendly. In addition to their free images, I have found https://unsplash.com/ and http://deathtothestockphoto.com/ to be helpful resources for beautiful photos.

6. Don’t Include Your Business Name in the Ad’s Headline – Headlines have limited character space, so don’t waste it on your business name. You can include your business name in your optimized URL, and use your headline for more critical content.

The quote above comes from his article, 11 Terrific Twitter Profile Designs for Inspiration, where he emphasizes the importance of standing out. He states that “we work, play and create in a digital ecosystem that defines you by your image online,” so brands need to carefully craft what they are on their online platforms and leverage the online real estate. For example, a brand or professional can utilize a Twitter profile to announce a new product, highlight a hashtag, promote a webinar or market a new look.

Business owners who spent time and money building their Facebook Page discovered in 2013, that Facebook is showing their posts to just a tiny fraction of their fans. If they want all their Facebook fans to see their posts, they now need to pay Facebook. Facebook owns their network! This change of the rules is a perfect example of why you need to avoid outsourcing your network, to a social network. Email marketing puts you in control and allows you to build an increasingly valuable asset.

Digital marketing activity is still growing across the world according to the headline global marketing index. Digital media continues to rapidly grow; while the marketing budgets are expanding, traditional media is declining (World Economics, 2015).[36] Digital media helps brands reach consumers to engage with their product or service in a personalised way. Five areas, which are outlined as current industry practices that are often ineffective are prioritizing clicks, balancing search and display, understanding mobiles, targeting, viewability, brand safety and invalid traffic, and cross-platform measurement (Whiteside, 2016).[37] Why these practices are ineffective and some ways around making these aspects effective are discussed surrounding the following points.

Monitoring your social media presence can be a challenge if you don’t have a way to automate and streamline the process. This is where Social Mention comes in. With this program, you can monitor four major metrics: strength, sentiment, passion, and reach.